Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Latest Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

54% of liver cirrhosis patients experience neurocognitive impairments

More than half of patients who have cirrhosis of the liver also display neurocognitive impairments such as short term memory loss, a study led by a Loyola University Health System researcher has found.

7 May 2010

Sun Pharmaceutical subsidiary granted USFDA approval for generic Namenda tablets

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. announced that USFDA has granted its subsidiary an approval for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) to market a generic version of Forest Laboratories, Inc.'s Namenda 5 mg and 10 mg tablets.

7 May 2010

Intellect Neurosciences signs debt settlement agreement with CARBOGEN AMCIS AG

Intellect Neurosciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on development of disease-modifying therapeutic agents for Alzheimer's disease, announced today that it has reached a debt settlement agreement with CARBOGEN AMCIS AG, one of Intellect's largest trade creditors, in connection with prior services rendered.

6 May 2010

RayBiotech announces biomarker grant winners

RayBiotech, Inc. has announced the winners of its Biomarker Discovery Pilot Grant program. In total, 18 award recipients were chosen for grants of up to $20,000 each, redeemable for RayBiotech products and services. "By offering these grants," states Dr. Ray (Ruopan) Huang, Founder and President of RayBiotech, "we intend to demonstrate that any researcher with a modest research budget can successfully discover and validate disease-related biomarkers using our antibody arrays."

6 May 2010

GENFIT announces milestone as compound developed in partnership enters the clinic

GENFIT (Alternext: ALGFT; ISIN: FR0004163111), a biopharmaceutical company at the forefront of drug discovery and development, focusing on the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of cardiometabolic and associated disorders, today announces the achievement of a milestone in the therapeutic research collaboration with one of its strategic pharmaceutical partners.

6 May 2010

Dark chocolate may protect brain after stroke by increasing cellular signals: Researchers

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that a compound in dark chocolate may protect the brain after a stroke by increasing cellular signals already known to shield nerve cells from damage.

6 May 2010

Scientists use specialized fluorescent protein to study nerve cell activity

Electrical currents are invisible to the naked eye - at least they are when they flow through metal cables. In nerve cells, however, scientists are able to make electrical signals visible. Working with fellow experts from Switzerland and Japan, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg successfully used a specialized fluorescent protein to visualize electrical activity in neurons of living mice.

6 May 2010

Spouses of dementia sufferers at higher risk of developing dementia

Older married adults whose spouse has dementia are at significantly higher risk for developing dementia themselves, compared to similar older married adults whose spouse never develops dementia. This is the key finding of a study published today in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

5 May 2010

Principals of StemTroniX, Power3 Medical Products file patent application

StemTroniX, Inc., a Texas corporation, and Power3 Medical Products, Inc. announced today that a joint provisional patent application entitled, "Stem Cell Protein Biomarkers and Their Use in Monitoring Stem Cells and Their Products for Stem Cell Therapy" has been filed by the principals of StemTroniX and Power3 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

5 May 2010

Older adults with depression do not respond to emotional stimuli, says study

Scientists have found an important clue in the quest to understand why people who suffer from depression in later life are harder to treat and keep well in the long term.

5 May 2010

Anavex reports promising results from ANAVEX 2-73 Alzheimer's disease compound in animal studies

Anavex Life Sciences Corp. is pleased to report promising results from animal studies with ANAVEX 2-73, the company's lead compound for the treatment and modification of Alzheimer's disease.

5 May 2010

Research analyzes clinical connection of NPH to AD

Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus is a neurological condition which typically affects adults ages 55 and older. This condition was first described in the 1960s as a triad of gait disturbance, dementia, and bladder incontinence. The ventricles of the brain appear enlarged although the cerebrospinal fluid pressure remains normal.

5 May 2010

Idera Pharmaceuticals reports net loss of $1.9M for first-quarter 2010

Idera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of DNA- and RNA-based drug candidates targeted to Toll-like Receptors, today reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010.

5 May 2010

Living with a dementia sufferer may affect spouse

In a new study researchers have revealed that partners of patients suffering from dementia or degeneration of memory and other mental faculties are six times more likely to develop the condition themselves.

4 May 2010

Amorfix Life Sciences detects AD-associated aggregated Beta-amyloid in blood plasma

Amorfix Life Sciences, a company focused on treatments and diagnostics for misfolded protein diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), announced today the detection of the AD-associated aggregated Beta-amyloid (ABeta), the hallmark of AD, in the blood from the most-frequently-used animal model of AD. The assay detects both oligomeric and fibrillar aggregates of ABeta, which are generally considered to be the toxic forms and major contributors to brain dysfunction in AD.

4 May 2010

Hartford Foundation awards $800,000 grant for training in geriatric social work

The prestigious Hartford Doctoral Fellows and Hartford Faculty Scholars programs have awarded $800,000 in combined new grants to ten researchers in the field of geriatric social work.

4 May 2010

New study shows people with BAV more likely to have brain aneurysms

A new study shows that people with a common heart defect may also be more likely to have brain aneurysms. The study is published in the May 4, 2010, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

4 May 2010

UCSF transgenic mouse model first to display earliest signs of Parkinson's disease

UCSF researchers have created the first transgenic mouse to display the earliest signs of Parkinson's disease using the genetic mutation that is known to accompany human forms of the disease.

4 May 2010

Algal DHA improves memory function in healthy aging adults: MIDAS

The Memory Improvement with Docosahexaenoic acid Study published online this week in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association showed that algal DHA improved memory function in healthy aging adults, providing a benefit roughly equivalent to having the learning and memory skills of someone three years younger.

4 May 2010

Johns Hopkins researchers identify a key protein that triggers sarcoidosis

Lung researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a possible protein trigger responsible for sarcoidosis, a potentially fatal inflammatory disease marked by tiny clumps of inflammatory cells that each year leave deep, grainy scars on the lungs, lymph nodes, skin and almost all major organs in hundreds of thousands of Americans.

4 May 2010